Eventful closing stretch gives Xander Schauffele lead at Wells Fargo Championship

Xander Schauffele was fortunate not once, or twice, but three times on his 17th hole Thursday at the Wells Fargo Championship. It led to an (eventually) stress-free par and an opening 7-under 64 at Quail Hollow Club that paced the field.

Schauffele pushed his tee shot right at the short par-4 eighth Thursday, the ball landing in a heavily wooded area right of the fairway. His first break came when playing partner Wyndham Clark found his ball – narrowly within the allotted three-minute search period. His second break came when he and caddie Austin Kaiser were able to move a rock in the line of his backswing.

His third break came in the form of a ShotLink tower, and accompanying wiring, positioned in his line of play after removing the rock. It meant that he was entitled to free relief from the tower and wiring – his relief point coming just outside the tree line, with an angle to reach the green without tree trouble. Schauffele dropped and played a pitch shot from 48 yards to the green’s front portion, leading to a “routine” two-putt par from 34 feet.

Schauffele, No. 3 on the FedExCup standings, finished the day three strokes clear of Collin Morikawa, Alex Noren and three-time Wells Fargo champion Rory McIlroy.

He knows it goes back to his good fortune at No. 8.

“Got really lucky multiple times,” Schauffele said afterward. “One with Wyndham finding it, two, being able to move the rocks, and three, the ShotLink tower being in, like, my only shot line possible. To walk out there with sort of a no-breeze 4, with what I thought was almost out, was a really good break.

“I brought the rules official in there with me because I was like, you've got to be OK with this because this is literally the only shot I can hit. So Austin and I moved two massive rocks that weren't embedded and then I got relief out of the junk and then hit a pretty good shot on the green from there. What was a very stressful moment turned into a pretty stressless par.”

That par was preceded by an eagle at the par-5 seventh – he striped a 6-iron from 221 yards to 5 feet – and followed by a bonus birdie of sorts at the long par-4 ninth, via a 175-yard approach to 6 feet. Schauffele finished with a flourish – 3-under for his last three – after playing his first eight holes in 5-under (starting on No. 10), making bogey at No. 18 and beginning his second nine with six straight pars.

Schauffele was satisfied with his play overall, but he sheepishly admitted to good fortune on his penultimate hole of the afternoon, where players competed in threesomes off two tees (beginning at noon) due to heavy rains the evening prior.

The Rules of Golf giveth and taketh away. This time, he was on the receiving end.

“The determination (Rules Official) Dave (Donnelly) just made is that Xander can make it to that camera tower through the trees there,” said Mark Dusbabek, PGA TOUR Senior Director, Lead TV Rules & Video Analyst, on Thursday’s Golf Channel broadcast. “It’s a great break for him right there.”